The future of healthcare
IBM Health Industry Lead Annette Hicks, examines smarter healthcare where the electronic health record is central to a fully instrumented, interconnected system infused with predictive analytics.
Hear Perry Bartlett, Director of the Queensland Brain Institute, share his insights on Australia’s role in cutting edge healthcare, including the institute’s research into the relationship of the brain to everything from spinal injury to mental illness.
Healthcare Solutions
Australia’s health needs are changing
Australia's health needs are changing. In 1950, the life expectancy of a 50 year old man was 73 years; today it's 81 years. Good news for everyone, but it comes at a price. People aged between 65 and 74 years represent twenty times the cost of 15–24 year-olds upon Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and five times the cost for public hospitals.
As population demographics continue to change, so too must our healthcare solutions. Using tools like electronic medical records, wireless computing devices and health support networks, healthcare can be smarter.
In fact, much of smarter healthcare is not focused on the next big breakthrough in medical research. Smarter healthcare solutions start with the individual. Take the Medical Home model, for example. Primary care physicians act as "coaches," leading a team that manages a patient's wellness, preventive and chronic care needs. The doctor spends more time with each person, is available via e-mail and phone for consultation, offers expanded hours and coordinates care across the individual's entire care team.
But what else might we expect from a smarter healthcare system?
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Information isn't stranded on islands
Smarter healthcare is interconnected. Like Spain's Servicio Extremeño de Salud (SES), where each location had its own patient records system. The organisation took steps to create a global platform, connecting almost 13,000 professionals with a scheduling system that manages nine million outpatient visits a year.
Physicians spend time with patients, not paperwork
Geisinger Health System serves more than two million Pennsylvanians. The enterprise was one of the first healthcare organisations in the US to implement an electronic health record (EHR). This massive storehouse of clinical information, procedure and research enables extensive, diverse medical information to be used as the basis for medical research, treatments and life-saving breakthroughs.